Creating a Course

Courses are the focal point of Mindflash. Fortunately, creating a Course is easy. This Help Article will lead you through the basics and offer a few tips.

On the Left Navigation select “Courses”. Next, on the far right of the page, click the “Create Course” button.

Once you have created a new course, you will be sent to the Manage tab. From here you can start building your Course.

Manage

The Manage tab is where you will start setting up your Course:

1. Course Information: Here, you can add the title of your Course and Description.

2. Course Content: Click the ”Add and Arrange” button to open the Arranger window. You can add a Quiz, PowerPoint, Word, PDF, Video, and YouTube video to your course by clicking on the “Insert +” button. For Pro Accounts, you can upload SCORM Content. A browse window will open and you can search your computer for the file you want to add. Also, at the end of the Arranger, you will be able to add a Survey.

Tip: if you are creating your first course, grab any Powerpoint off your computer. You can always delete the Course later but it will allow you to get a feel for how Mindflash works and what it can do.

3. Handouts: You can add handouts to your course by clicking the “Upload” button. Handouts are files that your Trainees will be able to download and keep on their machines. This is not necessarily Course content. Handouts are typically used for information that is supplemental to a Course. Items like Handbooks, product Manuals, etc are common candidates for Handouts.

4. Trainer Information: This is the person who will receive the notifications emails regarding Trainee progress or completions. The notifications are turned on in the Settings tab.

Arrange Window

The Arrange window is where you will work on uploading your content and setting up the order of your slides. This is also the place to use our recording audio feature.

1. Files can be added and arranged within your course from the Arrange window. If your Course has more than one file, the Arrange window is critical. To add additional content or a Quiz, scroll to the part of the Course where you want to add the content by clicking on the left or right slide or dragging the blue arrow in the bottom section.

2. Click the “Insert +” button between the two slides where you want the file to go. You can add any content here or Insert a Quiz. Select the appropriate content type from the menu and Browse your computer for the file. Quizzes can also be added in the Insert menu.

3. All Content files, Quizzes, and Surveys are represented at the bottom left of this screen with their file name. On the right side of the file name, are the colored "beans". It is possible to drag these files into different positions. For example, a quiz can go in the middle of a PowerPoint. Either insert a new quiz between the PowerPoint slides or if the Quiz is already created, drag the green Quiz bean to the position you want it between the PowerPoint slides.

Tip: The top section can be expanded or contracted to show more or less of the bottom section.

4. The Arrange tab is also where you can record audio on your slides. Audio can be added to the Intro and Recap slides, PowerPoint, PDF, and Word. It cannot be added to Quizzes or Surveys. To record audio, click the microphone button that appears in the colored bar below the slide.

5. Slides can be hidden by clicking the eye icon below the slide. For PDFs and Word docs, you can choose between pages being displayed individually or as one long scrolling document. This is also available in the colored bar below slides.

6. Lastly, click the “Save and Close” button to save your work.

Note: Surveys can be added at the end of a Course. A “Survey” button appears below the “Insert+” button, between the last slide and the Recap slide.

Settings

The Settings tab allows for Course specific settings to be adjusted, including Passing requirements, Certificates and Activity Notifications.

1. Course Settings:

A. In this section you are able to set up a deadline date.The Course Deadline determines how long a Trainee has to complete the course from the time they are Invited.

B. Next, you can set the passing score for the course. By setting the minimum passing score, Trainees will have to achieve set score to be considered Passed for the course and receive a Certificate (assuming Certificates are turned on). If you have multiple Quizzes in your course, the Course score will be determined by the average of all of the Quizzes in the Course.

Note: Additional passing requirements can be set on individual quizzes. If both are turned on, Trainees must meet the requirements of both settings to be considered Passed and receive a certificate.

C. Trainee activity emails are sent alerting Trainers to the activity within the Course. These emails are sent to the email address of the Course Trainer determined on the Manage tab. They can be set to: Immediately, Daily or Weekly. They can also be turned off completely.

2. Certificate:

Course Certificates are on by default. There are three templates to choose from by clicking “Change Certificate Style.” The Certificate will display your logo from the Branding section of the Manage Account page. It will also populate the course name and Trainer from the course. You can chose whether to display the course score on the Certificate. Certificates are only issued when a Trainee successfully passes a course.

3. Trainee Settings:

A. You have the option to allow Trainees to retake the course when they complete it. If a Trainee chooses to Retake the course , they can do so from their Trainee dashboard. If they Retake the course, it will start them from the beginning of the course. The record from their initial attempt will not be maintained.

B. Additionally, you can choose whether Trainees have the option to email the Course Trainer (as indicated on the Manage tab) while taking the Course. When this is enabled, an icon is available in the Course player. Clicking on that allows the Trainee to send an email to the course trainer. A screen shot of the page they are on in the Course is sent along with the email.

Note: Advanced and Pro tier accounts can disable the ability for trainees to fast-forward through course animations, videos and narration.

4. Language:

Available on the Pro tier only.

To change the language for a course's navigation buttons and system messages, select the course you wish to change the language for. Navigate to the "Customize" tab and under the "LANGUAGE SETTINGS" section, you can change the language of the course to the ones available.

Note: Selecting the language does not change the language of the content that you have uploaded nor the descriptions entered about the course. For example: if you uploaded a PPT file in english, it does not change the language to one that you have chosen in the customize tab.

5. Emails:

If you want to add any additional text to emails that Mindflash sends out, it is easy to do this. You can customize text for Invitation, Reminder, and Completion emails by clicking the pencil icon.

Note: For Reminder emails the default is set to 3 days. You have the ability to change the Reminder emails to be set to 7 or 14 days.

6. Share Your Course:

In this section you have three options: Private, Current Trainees, and Public.

Private:When a course is set to private trainees must be invited to the course.

Current Trainees:This setting allows you to copy the course URL and post it wherever works for you. Trainees that click this link will be allowed to register for the course ONLY if they already registered in your account.

Public:Making your course public also allows you to copy the course URL and post wherever works for you, however anyone who clicks this link will be given the opportunity to register in your account, adding to your trainee count.

Note: By setting your course Public, you have the ability to send an email, which opens your default mail client, where you can send the URL to your trainee distribution list, the settings above the email link will dictate who is able to use the link to access the course.

Also, Your course can also be shared via your favorite social network. You have several options on the bottom left of the Distribute tab. Simply select the social network of your choice, sign in and post! Options include Yammer, Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter.

7. Once you have set the settings for the course, click "Save".

Trainees

The Trainees tab is where you will be able to see all Trainees enrolled in the course. On the top right, there is an orange "Invite" button. To add Trainees, click on the "Invite" button. You will have the following options when inviting trainees: Existing, New, Upload Excel, From Yammer.

Note: The "Invite" button will be available in all tabs: Overview, Manage, Settings, and Trainees tab.

From the Trainees tab, you are able to view reports or survey reports that update in real time.

In the "Export Data" tab, you can download a report that includes All Trainees or Filtered Trainees. Survey Reports will be viewable under "Reports" Button.

Tip: To see a Trainee's answers to a specific quiz, click on the percentage score under the Quiz Scores column next to their name.

Course reports are exportable to Excel or PDF format. Those options appear at the bottom of the report.

Survey reports are accesible from the Track tab in the Your Course box or from the Course report in the bottom left. Survey reports reveal the number of responses for each answer of a multiple choice question and all of the free text answers for an open ended question. These reports can be exported to Excel.

Advanced Reports provide additional information about Courses, Trainees, Series and Quizzes. Key reports provided by Advanced Reports include Trainee transcripts, Series reports, Quiz question success rates and trend reports. These reports are available on the Advanced and Pro tiers. For more info, please visit this article.